In his profile picture, 23 children surround him as he talks about his experience in radio. Rafael Murúa was passionate about his profession and often shared anecdotes about his participation in Baja California Sur ’s first community radio, RadioKashana .
Rafael is the first journalist murdered in Mexico in 2019 and the second in the state in less than two years. Local authorities had noted a decrease in violence in the past few months.
Murúa was adamant in moving forward with his radio show in Santa Rosalía, Mulegé , where journalism is considered a high-risk activity, according to his friends and colleagues.
“Rafa was intelligent, but more importantly, he was stubborn and persistent . Once he had an idea in his head, he pursued it and brought it to life. He started the project pretty much on his own. He had some help, of course, but the entire initiative was his,” told Efraín Patiño, a journalist from Guerrero Negro who is currently working on another community radio: La Voz del Pacífico (The Voice of the Pacific).
Father of three, Rafael always sought to better himself and had obtained a degree in journalism earlier in his career.
Rafael left the state after receiving threats from criminal groups in 2016 . Therefrom, he adhered to the Mechanism for the Protection of Journalists .
In 2018 , his radio show was starting to kick off, as well as his news portal. He was always in favor of good causes. He published Civic Protection notices as well as articles meant to question irregularities in the city council’s money management or warning about the escape of an inmate.
Last year, Mexico ranked second in number of murdered journalists worldwide, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) .
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